Ear ear

Today I went for 2year old's follow up appointment for her hearing. Last time we went, the audiologist suspected that she was having trouble hearing quiet sounds and one of her ears was significantly worse than the other. She also was concerned about her level of speech which isn't amazing (but we can understand her) and see if the two are connected.

We did the same tests today and once again the quiet sounds (a level which we would find as quiet) she had no response to at all.

They also made noises (loud and quiet) behind her with rattles, drums, xylophones and jingle bells alternating from the left ear to the right ear.

Once again she only heard the noises when they were at a normal level (e.g voice level) and when the instrument was played behind her left ear she always looked to the right every time. The audiologist said that this was probably because she had a poor level of hearing from her left ear so she could only hear it from the right, that is why she always turned to the right.

After about 30mins, 2year old was bored of being tested and stopped responding (cheeky thing!) so the audiologist went on to say that she is pretty certain that 2year old has a poorer level of hearing in her left ear and this could contribute to her not being able to hear quiet noises. So she asked if I was alright having a member of the hearing team come out to us to observe her at home so 2year old would be more relaxed and they could get a clearer view of what she can and cannot hear.

I of course said yes, so on the 23rd Feb (pudding's 1st birthday) a nice lady is coming over to watch her play and go through some of the tests again when she's more relaxed.

I'm feeling a mixture of things:

1. I'm relieved that shes getting the help she needs (if she does have a hearing problem)
2. I'm very worried because it's her hearing, which is important and shes my baby and the thought of her struggling makes me feel dreadful.
3. I'm glad that something has come out of all the tests and I'm not just being a paranoid mummy thinking there is something wrong when there isn't. The audiologist asked me if she had improved over the past weeks and I said no because this is the way she has always been since she was 1.
4. I'm looking forward to the home visit so she can be more relaxed and hopefully this will provide a more accurate picture of her hearing, so we can move forward with either treatment or a 'real' diagnosis instead of being in limbo.

So fingers crossed we will get an answer after the next visit and start to give 2year old the support she needs with either her hearing or speech or both xxxxx

Things that make me happy

When the sky is grey, the weather is miserable and the kids are driving me crazy it is always nice to think of things that make me happy to blow those clouds away.

• A good book

I love nothing more than starting a good book. I love looking forward to reading that next chapter so I can slip into a fictional make believe.

• Something yummy in the cupboard

It is always nice to know there is something delicious and yummy in the cupboard to put a smile on my face (and tummy)

• A nice cup of tea (made my hubby)

Nothing washes away stress better than a hot cup of tea. Especially made by my non tea drinking hubby?! He makes a better cup than me and he doesn't even drink it!

• Some good music

I love music, whether it's the latest chart hits or the soundtrack to Les Miserables. A good tune always perks me up and gets me either singing my heart out or dancing round the kitchen.

• A clean and tidy house

There is something lovely about going to bed at night in a lovely tidy bedroom, it feels so much calmer and peaceful. But it is even better to wake up to a lovely tidy house, I love walking around my house admiring it when it is perfect. But of course having 4children minimises the chance of it staying perfect for long, so i cherish every second lol!

• A lovely bunch of flowers

I love having a fresh bunch of flowers in the house. At moment I have a gorgeous pink bouquet in my lounge and it makes me smile every time I look at it.

• A smile

Whether it's from my four little ones or from my hubby a smile is so infectious that you just can not smile back.

• A hug

If I'm having a hormonal meltdown or something bad has happened a hug from my hubby will dissolve all those feelings and make me feel so much better. Every hug I get from him transports me back to when we first met and I always feel so safe and warm in his arms.

• A good film

I love films, action, adventure, romantic, thriller etc I'll watch anything once and my DVD collection reflects this!

• Twitter

All my lovely friends on twitter always make me smile, from crazy funny tweets to words of comfort. Someone is always there to listen and that is invaluable.

• The sounds of sleeping

I love creeping around my house at night listening to my children sleep away. There is something comforting about hearing them all snoring and snuffling away and watching there little faces so still and peaceful.

What makes you smile? Do you have certain things that make you feel better?

Enjoy your weekends and i hope they make you smile xxxx

Wordless Wednesday

26 Weeks today!!!!

And here is a bump picture for you all.

Hope you like xxxxx

(warning....shameless plug)

Please could vote for my romantic line in the @hallmark competition. Mine is under @1moremeans4 click here. And big thank yous in advance xxxxxxxxxxx

The Fog

At the moment i feel like I'm surrounded by a big thick pea soup type fog.

I know things will seem worse because I'm pregnant and at the moment i feel like a slave to the vicious hormones that are racing through my body that are snatching all my good qualities away from me. At the moment I wake up irritated and go to bed miserable.

There is no break from it. I don't know what to do to make myself feel better. I don't like being short tempered, I don't like feeling like everything annoys me, I don't like feeling like I want to just run away and hide somewhere, I chose my life of mine, no one else did, so I should just deal with it right?

I probably will feel totally different by this time tomorrow (pregnancy eh?) but it feels better to get it off my chest and moan a bit.

I'll be 26weeks pregnant this week, how the time has flown by! There's not long to go now and I'm finishing work on the 2oth March.

I'm sure I'm just frazzled and need some R&R, but I'm off for a week from work so I'm going to try and get a bit of me time to try and blast these negative feelings away.

Here's to a less hormonal few days xxx

weirdo wednesday

Yes a slight title change for this week but all will become clear as you read on.

As you all know my house is on the market and I got a call from my estate agent telling me i had a viewing on the house on Saturday at 1pm. Great! i thought, always nice to get some interest I'd better start tidying etc.

Anyway, we'd been out taking the children to toysrus, so we came in a bit later than usual and got some dinner on for them and I'm sat on the floor feeding the pud some yogurt. The next thing i feel a draft coming from somewhere, i looked up and saw a man standing in my lounge!!!!!

Well I panicked and shouted hubby to see WTF was going on!! It turns out this guy was the person coming to view the house on Saturday. He had 'just been passing by' and wanted to know what the size of the bedrooms were like???? Hubby told him he'd have to wait until Saturday and asked why the hell he thought it was OK just to walk into our house!

He was obviously not bothered and kept asking questions about the house and said he just wanted a look around upstairs?!!! By this time hubby was turning a shade of red and firmly asked him to get out of our house and speak to the estate agent.

He (finally) left and i was in complete shock! I couldn't believe that this guy had thought it was OK just to wander around my house, i was only in the kitchen but thank god i wasn't upstairs or alone! I think i would have had a heart attack!

We phoned up our estate agents and cancelled his viewing for Saturday and made it perfectly clear that this was totally unacceptable. I definitely think we will be changing estate agents now after this shocking incident!

I have never heard or seen of anything like that, I was quite shook up about the whole thing but then my shock turned to anger. How dare this guy just walk through the front door without knocking or anything?! My house is for sale this doesn't mean it's an open house for any old weirdo to come in and see.

Lets hope the next viewing we have doesn't involve trespassing! xxxx

x marks the spot.....sometimes

It was a nice weekend, we didn't do much but i did some painting,baking, play doughing and drawing with the girls. As usual 2year old left me a nice full nuclear nappy so i cleaned her up and let her go nappy free for a bit. I love watching her little botty wiggle around the house whilst she chases after her sisters. I decided to go upstairs and tackle the clean clothes pile that was threatening to take over my bedroom and hubby watched the girls.

Next thing i know hubby is yelling up the stairs telling me that 2year old had done a wee wee in the potty!!! I was amazed! The potty just hangs around the house like a lost soul at the moment and i was hoping that one day 2year old might just use it and low and behold she did! Apparently she went up to hubby pulling at her skirt so he took it off for her and she sat on the potty with no help. She must have been paying close attention to her sisters recently. I am so proud of her!

So on Sunday i let her go nappy free and she once again gestured to her trousers, i whipped them off and she went on the potty! Wow this has to be the easiest potty training to date, we only had one accident because she accidentally weed behind the potty but at least it was close! What a clever girl she is and after all her problems with the allergic arthritis, her speech therapy referral and the on going hearing tests she still shines through like a little star!

In other news, the pud is trying to pull herself up to standing, she is very close and will stand and make walking movements whilst hubby holds her hands. It's so cute to watch, especially when hubby and I went to get her from her afternoon snooze and she was half standing at the side of her cot bouncing up and down. We just looked at each other whilst silently acknowledging the fact that our baby is growing up and is becoming a toddler (sob) She is one next month and i can't believe how fast this year has gone.

Even after seeing my babies grow from baby to toddler 3times it always still brings a tear to my eye when they walk for the first time. It is a combination of pride (for baby's success) and sadness that the baby days are over. Luckily for me i get to do it all one last time with baby bump but what happens when he grows out of his baby days? I think I'd better get a lot of tissues in when that day comes (waaaaaaaa) xxxxx